Forget weekend box office. This past weekend marked the launch of the home video release of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn –Part 1,” which has already grossed $700 million worldwide. The film sold an estimated 3.2 million DVD and Blu-ray units. DVD sales for the film, which became available on Saturday at 12 a.m.–boosted by midnight opening weekend launch events at Target and Walmart, among other retailers–are about 18% ahead of the opening weekend of the third film in the franchise, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” reports Summit Entertainment, which is now owned by Lionsgate. “Eclipse” sold 2.7 million units on DVD and Blu-ray in its first weekend, but at a lower price point.

“Breaking Dawn–Part 1” also delivered strong sell-through transactions on digital platforms, some 50,000, a 47% increase over the last film, and some 80,000 on VOD, a 142% increase over “Eclipse.”

Also directed by Bill Condon, “Breaking Dawn- Part 2,” starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and adapted by Melissa Rosenberg and Wyck Godfrey from the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, will open theatrically on November 16, 2012, a year after Part 1.